(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

But anyway, let's go to Psalm 38 and let's look at verse number three, Psalm 38, verse number three. It says, there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. I wanted to title the sermon tonight, because of my sin, because of my sin. And this is a Psalm of David. If you look at, if your Bible has it, not all Bibles have it, but many Bibles in verse number one, it begins by saying a Psalm of David. And so we know King David, of course, was a great faithful man, did great and mighty works for the Lord. But he sins, just like anybody, any great person, he sins. And this is a reality that we must accept in our Christian life. We're going to sin every day till the day we die. If you think you don't sin, there's something wrong with you, honestly. I mean, the sin, if you think you haven't sinned, either you're not saved, or you've deceived yourself to the point where you just think you're the greatest person and you're trying to base your salvation on how well you perform. But the truth is we're going to sin till the day we die. King David continued to sin. And in this chapter, we see the chastening of the Lord, the Lord's hand upon David for his sin. So let's start there in verse number one, Psalm 38, verse number one, it says, "'O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, "'neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.'" Why is the Lord chastening David? Well, obviously because David has sinned, okay? And David knows because of his sin, we don't know exactly what sin it is, that takes place in this Psalm, but because David has sinned, he expects, he knows that God is going to step in, chastise, chasten him in a very bad way. You know, David's asking, "'Look, rebuke me not in thy wrath.'" He's saying, look, it's okay, Lord, if you need to correct me, if you need to bring out that rod of chastising upon me, I understand, I've done wrong, but please don't do it in your wrath. You see, God's chastening can be very wrathful. It can be very strong. And you know, when we do wrong, we need to run to the Lord very quickly and say, apologize, and understand that you are going to face the chastening of the Lord. You know, many trials and tribulations that we go through is the chastening of the Lord, many times. You know, sometimes we think, oh, it's just persecution. You know, it's a devil, the devil's trying to hurt me, and the devil's caused me problems, or, you know, it's a spiritual fight, and we're struggling, we're just trying to serve the Lord faithfully. Or you might be, you know, oh, it's just a world, the ungodly world, and it brings so much turmoil and trouble and brevity can be all of those things. Of course, it can be the devil, it can be the world. But many times, the reason you go through troubles is because of yourself, because you have a sin nature, because you do wrong, because you sin. And when you sin, God's gonna step in and chastise his people, okay? And one of the most important things for you to realize when you're going through trials and difficulties is to determine, could this be me? Could these be my actions? Could I be facing the wrath of God, the judgment of God? You know, God's chastening at this present time. I've got five points to cover tonight. And the first point that I have is that sin brings God's chastening. Sin brings God's chastening. And you know what, chastening is not enjoyable, okay? I'm sure parents, you know, when you've had to chasten your children, you've had to correct your children. I'm sure the children that are listening today, you know it's not enjoyable. You know it's not pleasant. You rather not have to deal with it. And you know what? And your parents don't wanna have to deal with it either. That's the other thing you need to understand. It's not pleasant for anybody, okay? But it's a necessary part of life. There's many things in life that we need to do that are not necessary, sorry, that are unnecessary, but you may not like it. You know, for many children, they don't wanna eat their veggies. They don't wanna eat their fruits and their veggies. But it's necessary for you to have good health, okay? Yeah, you could live your life on pizza and nuggets and McDonald's, but you're gonna have a shorter life. You're gonna have bad health. And you know, the reason your parents want to give you a good nutritious food and they wanna force those veggies down your throats, and sometimes my wife wants to throw veggies down my throat as well, is to improve our health, right? It's not always pleasant, but hey, you gotta just understand that this is necessary to profit from. To profit from is gonna help you in the future. If you can please keep your finger there and go to Hebrew chapter 12. Go to Hebrew chapter 12, stay there in Psalm 38 and go to Hebrew chapter 12. And while you're turning to Hebrews 12, let me just read to you from Proverbs 13, 24. Because you might think, well, I really don't want God to chasten me. I don't want God to correct me in my sin. But Proverbs 13, 24 says, he that spareth his rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betime. So chastening him early, okay? So what is he saying? If you don't bring the chastisement as unpleasant as it is for the children, as unpleasant that it is for the parents, if you don't bring that rod of correction, you hate your son. And the fact that God is willing to chastise David and he's willing to chastise you when you've done wrong, this proves that God loves you. If God was not chasing us brethren, you could say, well, maybe God hates me. But listen, when you've been saved, you've been born again, you've been born as a child of God, you become a son of God and he's your father. And just like any father, any, I know it's unpopular, very unpopular these days to say, hey, take out that rod and chasing your kids, okay? But that is a sign of love. And when you withhold that rod, you're actually saying, I hate my child. I know that's hard to accept. It's not what you're gonna hear in your child rearing books, okay? But it's what you read in the Bible. You know, the most loving thing that you can do as a parent is when your children sin, when they disobey their parents, when they do wrong, is to take out that rod of chastisement and show them plenty of love using that rod, okay? But you're in Hebrews chapter 12 in verse number six. Hebrews chapter 12 verse number six. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeeth every son whom he receiveth. Notice that once again, just to, you know, clarify, you know, that chastening is an act of love. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeeth, look at this, every son whom he receiveth. So if you've been born again, if you've been saved, you know what, you're going to face the chastisement of the Lord. You're gonna face the chastening of the Lord. Once again, we don't always know that it may be the chastening of the Lord, right? Again, you're going through some difficulty, you're going through some hardship. And, you know, again, yeah, it could be the devil, it could be the world, but it could just be God's hand upon you for the wrong that you've done. And you know, the biggest advice that I can tell you is this, you know, when you're going through a trial, you need to stop and say, have I sinned against you, Lord? Is there something that I've not confessed to you? Is there something that I'm too ashamed and too embarrassed to put my hand up and admit that I've done wrong? Sometimes many Christians find it hard to just admit they've done wrong. They know deep down they've done wrong, but they're not willing to admit either to the person they've offended, or they're not willing to admit to the Lord God that they've done wrong. And the longer you put that off, you know, the harsher God's chastening is going to be. But it's guaranteed it's going to happen in your life, okay? And I often say that with people that struggle through difficulties, because it's always, you know, it's like the Garden of Eden, right, with Adam and Eve, when the Lord came and, you know, Adam was blaming Eve and Eve was blaming the devil. And really, you know, it was them, they're the sinners. Okay, yes, God took care of the devil, okay? He had a part in their sin, but God also chastened, you know, Adam and Eve, and they were kicked out of the garden. So we need to sometimes recognize and say, well, maybe I'm going through this difficulty because of the sin that I've done. And these are the consequences. This is God showing his love toward me, correcting me that I might do better in the future. Let's keep going to verse number seven in Hebrews 12, seven. It says, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof, look at this, all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. God is saying, look, if you never received my chastisement, you're a bastard. If you never received God's chastisement ever in your life, it proves you're not saved, basically. If you are saved, you are going to be chastised by God. Okay, you are going to face it. And it says, whereof all are partakers. That means your pastor has received the chastisement of the Lord in my life, okay? That means you have, whether you want to admit it or not, you have, okay? And you say, well, what if I'm going through a difficulty? What if I'm going through a problem and I just can't determine whether this is chastening or if it's just trials and tribulations, what do I do? And at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Like if the trial and tribulation is coming from God's chastisement, and maybe you don't realize it, or whether it's just coming through the world and just the awfulness, the weakness that's in the world, it doesn't really matter in the end, okay? What matters is, okay, I'm going through this trial, I'm going through this difficulty. Now you ask yourself the question, Lord, what is it that you want me to learn? Because even if it's not God's chastisement, God is still allowing you to go through that difficulty for a reason, okay, through that trial to teach you some great truth, to help you grow, to help you mature, to help you have great faith upon Him, to have a reliance upon Him. So ultimately, whatever trial it is, you know, if you can't even work out which direction it's coming from, it really doesn't matter. All that matters is what are you going to do? How are you going to work yourself through this? How are you going to grow? What lessons are you going to learn through this process? And so please never be someone that doesn't want the difficulties, doesn't want the trials and tribulations, because they're actually good for you. They help you develop, they help you grow, okay? They help you mature, so you can develop great qualities in your life, so you can be more Christ-like in your spiritual growth. If you can please go back to Psalm 38, please, Psalm 38, Psalm 38. Actually, and also still keep your finger there, but please go to another Psalm, go to Psalm 6, not too far away from there. Please go to Psalm 6 and look at verse number 1. Psalm 6, Psalm 6, verse number 1, it says to the chief musician, at least my Bible says this, on Neganoth upon Sheminath, and then it says a Psalm of David. So we know Psalm 6 is also a Psalm of David. Many other Psalms are the Psalms of David, of course. But how does this Psalm begin? It says, oh Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy heart displeasure. So we have Psalm 6, David, great faithful man, being chastised by God. Then we get to Psalm 38, David's getting chastised by God again, okay? So it's not just gonna happen once. The more we live, the more of the chastisement you're going to receive, okay? And so, yeah, you face it once, you're gonna face it again. And you're gonna sin and you're gonna face it again in the future. And you're gonna face it again, and again, and again, and again. And every time you're chastened by the Lord, I want you to remember, ah, I'm being chastened because God loves me and because I'm his son, and I've got something that I need to learn from through this process. There's going to be something great that God wants to develop in my life. And so, as I said, you know, the first point is sin brings God's chastening. Now back to Psalm 38 and verse number two. Psalm 38 and verse number two. It says, this is the chastening of the Lord, of course, for thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore. Now notice the chastisement of the Lord. Is it just a little tap on the hand? Naughty boy, ah, you shouldn't have done wrong. Hey, you're a good boy now and you can do better. Is that what it is? Is that the kind of chastening? And when God chastens his people, what does it feel like? Because the Psalmist says, for thine arrows stick fast in me. Man, if you get shot by multiple arrows, don't you think that's going to be painful? Don't you think it's going to hurt? You see, chastening needs to hurt. And we have the figurative language here of God's hand. It says, and thy hand presseth me sore. You see, God's chastening is by the hand and it inflicts pain. It inflicts hurts. And so what I'm saying to the parents, please, you are a father, you are a mother. You have children that you ought to love. You ought to chasten them. And when you chase it and correct them, it ought to hurt. There ought to be pain. You do it with your hand. You say, Pastor Kevin, this is 2021. You're going to get arrested saying such things. Well, you know what? For the time being, there's no problem saying such, look, there's never a problem saying such things because it's God's word. But let me ensure you that Australian law still permits, as much as people try to deny this, even Australian law permits parents to chastise their children with a rod, as long as it's not obviously physical abuse or something like that, right? Where you're going to damage somebody, right? You know, normal pain inflicted, you know, on the rear side of the child, where it's, you know, where all the pattern is, where you can actually receive pain, you know, that is the ideal place and to use the rod of correction. You know, just some other passages that I'm going to read to you from in Proverbs 22, 15. Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. So what is bound in the heart of a child? Love, rainbows, obedience. No, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. You don't have to teach your children how to be foolish. You don't have to teach your children how to disobey and how to sin. You don't have to, it's already there in their hearts. It's bound in their hearts, okay? It requires effort to unbind. It requires effort to get rid of that foolishness. Putting them in the naughty corner does not deliver them from the foolishness, okay? Removing privileges in their life, taking away their privilege to ice cream after dinner or something, right? Taking away their, I don't know, their game time, right? If they play video games or something, right? That's not, that doesn't take away the foolishness. The only thing that takes the foolishness away from the child's heart is the rod of correction. Please let me encourage our parents. Take your hand, grab a rod, grab a wooden spoon, grab something, okay? Where you can apply a good amount of force, where it's going to sting, where it's going to remind them of the pain. It's going to cause them to cry a little bit, okay? Where they feel like some arrows have hit them, okay? And of course you're not going to cause any damage, internal damage or anything like that, no. A proper placement, you know, parents have been doing this for thousands of years with their kids, okay? And there's nothing wrong. This is how God intends it to be. This is how we get the foolishness out of the hearts of our children. And you know, if you don't apply it, if you don't do it, your children are going to grow up to be foolish, okay? This is why you have adults that still act like children. This is why you have adults that haven't learned the lessons that they should have learned in childhood, because their parents did not apply the rod of correction. Now, hopefully let's say a father or mother did a bad job. Okay, let's say that happens. It happens many times. Well, that just means that when, if they're saved, if that child is saved, praise God, it just means that God's going to have to do a lot more correcting himself with his hand of chastisement, with his hand of correction, you know, because the child did not receive it as he grew up and became an adult. Another Proverbs is, and remember Proverbs is the book of wisdom, okay? It's not the book of how to live like a caveman or how to live like a British stupid life. No, it's the book of wisdom, and it's wise to chastise the children. It's wise to take the rod of correction. It's foolish to avoid the rod of correction. Proverbs 23, Proverbs 23 verse 13 says, "'Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.'" You know what the Bible says? You ought to beat him with the rod. Again, it's not a little tap, okay? It requires a bit of force, a bit of sting, a beating, okay? He shall not die, okay? So obviously we do it to inflict pain, to teach a lesson. Okay, as I said, the backside is the perfect place. There's no major important organs on the back pad in there. Okay, it's the perfect place. The pain receptors are a little bit higher there as well. Okay, so you don't have to apply as much force on the rear side, but that's the perfect place to do it. As I said, people have been doing this for 1,000 years and it's effective. And then it says in verse number 14, "'Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.'" Can you believe that? That your child's ability to get saved, to recognize their sinful condition, to desire a savior, okay, also that receptiveness also comes into play through chastisement by using the rod of correction. You see, if you withhold the rod, you're reducing your child's ability to get saved. You say, in what way? Does the Bible say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and get a beating on your bottom and thou shalt be saved? No, it doesn't say that. But the issue here is when someone does wrong, when your child does wrong and they receive the chastisement, they learn a lesson. There's consequences to my sin. There's consequences to the wrong that I do. And when they grow up, then they can understand the principle that when I sin against my Lord God and I'm without a savior, then if I die without a savior, I'm going to end up in hell. You help your child understand there are consequences. There is punishment for sin when you chastise your child. And so when they hear the gospel, when they hear the Bible preach and they hear that God will cast the wicked into hell, they say, well, of course he will because they've done wrong. They deserve the punishment. Hey, Lord, I need a savior, please help me. And they'll have their soul delivered from hell. So chastisement plays a very important role, very important role. Please, parents, don't neglect it, okay? We have a generation of children, a generation that are growing up without discipline. In fact, when they do wrong, they get a pat on the head and get a cookie. You know, good boy, Johnny, you've done well, okay? And you know, one of the great things, it's horrible for society, but you know what? If you raise your children to be respectful toward authority, to put their hand up when they've done wrong, to admit they've made mistakes when they put their hand up, if you raise your child to just be that way, they're going to shine brightly in society. They're going to be productive. They're going to be well-received. They're going to be good employees. People are going to love them because they're going to stand out from the wicked generation that they live in. So it's not just the salvation, but they're going to be able to live better, more productive lives, okay? If you teach them the importance of chastisement. Let's keep going there in Psalm 38. Psalm 38, verse number three. "'There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, "'neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.'" Verse number four, "'For my iniquities are gone over mine head, "'as in heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.'" The next point that I have for you, point number two, is sin is too heavy to bear. Sin is too heavy to bear, you know? And we have, again, we have people in Australia knocking their doors. You know, are you sure you go to heaven? Yeah, I'm trying to be a good person. You can't bear it, okay? That person has sinned, okay? You'll never overcome the sin you've done in your life, all right? Even a single sin causes us to be worthy of hellfire. You cannot bear sin. You know, sometimes sin might seem like something small, something that you can get away with, right? But it will cause great burdens upon you, guaranteed. It's just too much. This is why we needed Jesus Christ to step in and bear our burdens, to bear our sins, to bear the consequences of our sins, to bear the infirmities because of sins, to bear the curse for us, because it's something we cannot bear. And as I said, many times people think that we can just play around with sin, okay? And if you grow up in a Christian home and you get taught some good biblical truths and your parents are somewhat strict and put boundaries in your life, and you're gonna see other people, other children, other people, teenagers growing up, and they're gonna seemingly look like they're having a great time, seemingly sinning and they don't care. Filthiness is coming out of their mouth, right? They're not keeping themselves pure, they're not keeping themselves virgins for their wedding day and you're gonna be like, well, it seems like they just have a great time, okay? But listen, there's gonna come a point where they're gonna have to face the reality of all the sins they've done and it's going to be a heavy, heavy burden. You don't want it. Sin is not something to be played with. You'll think, right now, when we sin, we just think we can handle it. I can handle this. You know, I can just enjoy this sin and I'll just, just this once, I'll just satisfy the flesh just once and then I won't do it again, no? You will do it again, okay? And then you'll do it again. And then you'll do it again. And sin is very addictive. You know, there's an idiom that says, if you play with fire, you will get burns. And you know what, if you play with sin, yeah, you will get burns, okay? You will suffer the consequences and that burning may very well just be the chastening of the Lord, but it could be other ramifications, other major consequences that fall in your life and it hurts you, it'll hurt people around you. You know, the alcoholic, he just started with, I can handle one beer. That's what he said. I can go to a party, just have this one beer, have this one wine and just a social event and it's not a big deal. That's where he started. That's where the alcoholic that spends all his money, that destroys his body, okay, that's where he started. You know what? It was too much for him to bear. He thought he could play with fire, but he got burns. The fornicator, the adulterer, they started with, well, I can have the hidden sin of adultery in my heart, you know, lusting after a woman, lusting after a man. Nobody knows about it, it's in my heart. Well, yeah, you know, that's where it started. The one sin that you thought you could play with and get away with eventually will lead you to, if you keep on that, it will lead you to fornication, it will lead you to adultery. You know, it always starts small and it just gets bigger. You know, the three month lockdown in Sydney, it started with, you know, two weeks to flatten the curve. Nah, I'm just joking. But anyway, you know what sin, it will always become a greater burden than what you wanted in the first place, okay? So please, you know, children, children, your parents have made a lot of mistakes and they don't want you to make the same mistakes that they have made. Please keep yourself pure. Please keep yourself away from sin. Don't think you can play with it. No, it's gonna be too much for you to bear. Look at verse number five. It says, my wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. You see, sin sometimes can cause physical harm. You know, we don't exactly know what happened, but for some reason, David suffered wounds in his body because of his sin. I don't know if he got into a fight, who knows what happened to David here, right? But his wounds stink, they're becoming rotten, right? He was foolish, he did something wrong, he sinned, and now he's dealing with the wounds in his body and he's attempting to heal from that. Look at verse number six. It says, I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. So the third point that I have for you tonight is, sin makes you depressed. Sin makes you depressed. And you know, it will, you know, when you've done wrong, especially when you've wronged the Lord or you've wronged other people, or you've offended other people, that's gonna play in your mind over and over and over again. You know, the only solution is to go and make peace and say sorry and apologize, right? Try to bring healing when you sinned against other people, or you know what, you may have sinned against, you know, against secretly, nobody seems to know about it, but you know you've done wrong, you know you've betrayed someone's trust, and it's just gonna be on your mind, okay? It's gonna cause depression, it's going to cause sadness. Many people suffer from depression because of sins they're not willing to admit, sins they're not willing to confess. And as it is, we've been sad and upset and depressed. You know, if you do not recover out of that, many times it causes physical harm in your body, okay? Because if you look at verse number seven, oh yeah, you know, it's medically proven that depression causes effects on your physical health. If you look at verse number seven, David says, for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee. So David, he speaks of not just the mental, but the physical pain he is suffering. And he says that my groaning is not hid from thee. So he's going to the Lord in prayer and he's expressing the mental anguish. He's expressing his mental depression. He is expressing the physical pain that he feels in his body. Look at verse number 10. He says, my heart panteth, my strength faileth me for as a light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. When you're suffering depression because of sin, it'll cause your strength to fail in you. Again, it has effects on your physical body. And I did a quick research just to look up some of the effects that depression, sadness, long-term sadness can have on the physical body. And just to give you some examples that I found here, number one, it says you're more likely to die from a heart attack. So it's not that a depressed person will suffer a high rate of heart attacks, but they're more likely to die from it because their body has been weakened. The next thing here is that when you're depressed, your blood vessels constrict, which may lead to cardiovascular disease. The third one is you'll suffer weight fluctuations from either overeating or appetite loss. So it messes with your appetite, one way or the other. Next one, and of course, if you're gonna lose weight or put on weight, then you're gonna have to face the other issues that come with those problems. The next one I have here is that it causes headaches and other pains in the body. The next one, it weakens the immune system. So if you just catch a flu or a cold, it's gonna take you longer to overcome that for your body to fight it if you're depressed. The next one is fatigue, depression causes fatigue. That's obviously low energy levels during the day when you need your energy the most. And I also read that it can cause you to have insomnia, not to sleep well, and that again, contributes to the fatigue that you're going to go through the day. These are all things that sin ultimately causes. Sin ultimately causes all these things. The third point that I said was that sin makes you depressed. And again, that mental depression will eventually have the effects on your physical body. Let's keep going. Verse 11, my lovers and my friends stood aloof from my soul and my kinsmen stand afar off. These are his friends, okay? His lovers, people that love him, his friends, his kinsmen, that's his family, they stand afar off. They even have sinned. He's dealing with the consequences of his sin right now. He's being chastised by God right now. He's going through difficulty. He's sad, he's depressed. He's not doing well physically, he's sick. It says here when these happen, that you can lose your friends, your loved one, your kinsmen, they stand afar off from you. Verse number 12, they also that seek after my life lay snares for me and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. And so you can see here that the enemies, when they see you in that weakened state in sin, when they had seen that weakened state where your friends and your loved ones are far from you, they seek to take advantage of that situation. And so the fourth point that I have for you tonight is that sin destroys relationships. Sin destroys relationships. And of course it does. You know, it's going to happen. As much as you try to avoid it in life, it's just gonna happen where you've got friends, you've got loved ones that you care about, you've got family and you're gonna offend them, they're gonna offend you because of some sin, there's some problem and it's going to break that friendship, okay? And that's what sin does. It breaks, it destroys relationships. Now, obviously when you destroy a relationship, there's harm, there's offense. It's always important to try to rectify that, you know, to have conflicts resolution, to sort that out, you know, for people to own up for the mistakes they've made, for forgiveness to be given. But you know what? If someone has offended you in a great way, and this is just normal, this is not like wrong for this to happen, this is just the reality of life, is even when there is forgiveness, even when someone has wronged you, okay? And you're able to say, yes, you know, brother, I'm sorry, you know, I forgive you, you know, let's forgive and forget. Let's say you get to that point and you should strive when you forgive someone to forget. But one thing you need to understand when offense has occurred, the trust has gone, okay? That level of trust that you once had with one another, it's not gonna be there anymore, okay? So people don't understand this. I speak to a lot of people that are willing to admit I've done wrong, I've done wrong, they'll say, okay? And they go and try to fix the error they've made, okay? They apologize, they get the forgiveness, but then I get the call, I get the phone call. It's like, well, they said they forgive me, but why don't they trust me? It's not that they haven't forgiven you, okay? Just because someone doesn't trust you the way they used to trust you doesn't mean they haven't forgiven you. Yeah, they're probably not harboring any ill thoughts towards you anymore, they're happy that it's been reconciled, they're happy that it's all over, but of course the consequences of sin are always there. It's going to damage relationships. If I were to cheat on my wife, commit adultery, well, number one, I should be put to death if this government followed biblical laws, but unfortunately we don't have that scenario, okay? And let's say I get caught and I apologize to my wife, say, honey, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Well, of course she's not going to trust me anymore, okay? Of course she's going to want to know where I go when I'm by myself, okay? When I say, honey, I'm going to the shops, there's always going to be some element in her mind that says, is he really going to the shops? And you can't get mad at the person that you offended, you know, that you offended, this is just part of the consequences. The trust is not going to be there anymore, okay? Now you can build up some trust over the years that can come back to some extent, but it's never going to return the way that it used to. This is why we should not, or we should strive to not offend one another because sin destroys relationships. Sin destroys relationships. And as we saw there in verse number 12, it also strengthens the hands of your enemies when they see you at a weak place, right? We saw the Psalmist here, his lovers, friends, family, they're far from David. And now, just like any predator, you know, the predator sees the weak prey, he sees the prey by himself away from his group, okay? And that's when the enemies want to come in and lash out and destroy you, right? They sniff out the weakness. And look how, I want you to notice how David responds, okay? Now, you know, David is a man of war. David is a strong man, he's taken on Goliath, okay? David is not, David is definitely a fighter. Let's put it that way, okay? But I want you to notice how David responds to his enemies in this Psalm. In verse number 13, he says, but I, as a deaf man, heard not. So his enemies are out to get him, his enemies are saying bad things about him, making accusations, whatever. He says, I'm just gonna be a deaf man. I'm gonna pretend I don't even hear what they're saying, okay, heard not. He says, and I was a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. He says, I'm not even gonna respond to what my enemies are doing, to what my enemies are saying about me. Verse number 14, thus I was a man that heareth not, and whose mouth are no reproofs, okay? So he's trying to ignore the attacks from his enemies here. And I do believe this is good advice. I think this is really good advice, you know? As you grow and mature in life, you know, you have to learn that you don't have to respond to every criticism. People are gonna criticize you, okay? Your friends, your family, your coworkers, they're going to criticize you. You've been in church, Wednesday nights, you're gonna get criticized. Someone's gonna laugh at you. Someone's gonna say, what? Don't you know it's midweek, it's a working week. You gotta get up for work tomorrow morning and you go to church to hear some crazy guy ramble about the Bible. Don't you know it's 2021, the Bible, no one cares about the Bible anymore. What are you doing with your life? But you know what? Maturity, growth, you know, at some point you just, you have to learn to just be like, you know, I don't care. I'm gonna be like a deaf man. I'm not even gonna open my mouth. I'm gonna be done. I'm not even gonna respond to the stupidity that comes from my enemies. But there's that maturity that we need to all learn from, okay, and not, you know, necessarily make three hours of video rebuttal on YouTube against your enemies and just learn to move on with life sometimes, you know? And you know, you're not gonna fix every scenario. But the reason David is doing this, the reason David's not responding is again, because he knows he's at a weak spot. He knows he's not, he doesn't have a fighting chance now against his enemies. He doesn't have his friends to back him up. He doesn't have his, you know, support network around him because of his sin. And again, David learns this lesson. If I don't have my support network around me here, I'm just this easy prey. My enemies can take me down. And I think that's another great lesson that we need to learn sometimes, right? So there's a time to fight and sometimes there's a time to just retreat because you're not ready to fight. You'll be destroyed by the people that are trying to hurt you. You know, verse number 13 reminds me a lot, you know, a lot of similar language about Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 53 verse seven, very famous verse, it says, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened, openeth not his mouth. You know, Christ also faced false accusations when he was arrested. Now, we know that Christ could have prayed to the father and the father would have sent legions of angels to deliver him from the hands of the enemies, okay? But Christ had a mission to die on the cross. And Christ recognized in order for me to accomplish this task, I have to let these false accusations go ahead. You know, Christ kept his mouth closed, you know? And in that process, actually, you know, he was led, he was found, well, found innocent, but still guilty, right? And obviously he died on the cross for our sins. And, you know, all it just shows us in the Bible is that we don't always have to fight. We don't have to fight every battle, okay? Sometimes is the time to be quiet, to let those false accusations come through and not respond for whatever purpose, you know, a greater purpose that God has for you, but also just to keep yourself safe and protected, you know, when you don't have the support network around you. And, you know, I'll just give you one, as I was preparing this sermon, just one story that kind of came back to my memory. So when I was in high school, I went to a Christian school and, you know, after school, you know, school finishes about three o'clock, 3 p.m. roughly, you know, a whole bunch of us would go to the train station, catch our trains back to our homes. So the train station, this was Regents Park here in New South Wales. You know, it was always full of school kids, right? You know, in our school uniforms. So we all looked like one big group. Well, there was another school not too far off, the closest other high school was Burong High School. And Burong was a public school and there were many scuffles, there were many fights between students between both schools, right? There was just this constant competition, this constant thing, right? I don't know why, it just happened. I'm sure every school has like their competitive school, right, they fight with or whatever, right? And there was one scenario where, I can't remember exactly what happened, but I finished early before normal time school finished. I don't know, maybe my class was canceled or something. And I went to the train station, I was pretty much by myself, okay? And there were some other students from the Burong High School, okay? And I just felt, man, this is not a safe place. Like I don't have my support network. My friends, they're not here, right? The group of people that are in my school, they're not here. And I'm like all by myself. And I'm guessing this is how King David feels at this point in time, right? He's just going to play dumb, he's gonna play deaf, okay? And I realized this is not a good situation. So I saw some high school students from the other school, Burong High School, come up to me and I go, I better get out of here, okay? Cause I'm in a weak place here. And I sort of thought, okay, that's a place of safety than some other people over there. I'm gonna make my way over there, okay? And as I got my bag and got up to go, those two students called out to me, hey, hey, okay? And they started to walk a little bit faster. And just by their tone, I knew there's gonna be problems. It's gonna cause a lot of problems. Well, you know what I did? I did exactly what King David did here. Verse number 13, but I, as a deaf man, heard not. And I was a dumb man that opened not his mouth, right? As soon as that happened, I just pretend I didn't hear him. I pretended I was deaf and started making my way to that safer area, okay? And by the time that I felt that I had developed enough distance where they weren't too much of a threat and I was close enough that if they ran that I could run to the safe area, right? I turned around, oh, sorry guys, yeah, sorry. I didn't realize you were calling me. What do you need, right? As nicely as I could. And they're like, oh, what's the time? It's like, oh, okay, well, the time is whatever. And I quickly just addressed it. And I went to a safer area. Anyway, it's a stupid story, but it kind of reminded me about playing deaf, right? And sometimes you gotta do that. Like you can't, as I said, you can't fight every battle. You're going to lose. You know what? If I didn't assess the threat right there, I would have lost. I would have taken a beating. Something would have happened, right? I would have lost my wallet. I would have had my watch stolen, whatever it is that people, young kids used to do back in my day, right? It kind of surprised me that everyone walks around with like expensive phones these days. When back in my day, if you had like a nice watch, that's what got stolen, right? If you got beat up or something. Anyway, let's go back to Psalm 38, please. Psalm 38, verse number 15. David says, for in thee, oh Lord, do I hope that we'll hear, oh Lord, my God. So he says, look, even though I'm playing deaf, God, you're listening to what my enemies are saying. You know what? They're up to God. So I'm going to leave it in your hands. And that's the part, that's the maturity, all right? That's the Christian growth. When you say, look, I'm not going to respond to every threat. I'm not going to respond to every criticism. Lord, you hear it, you take care of it, Lord. Cause I'm in a weak place, God. I'm not ready to fight this battle. I'm not in a position to take on these enemies. Lord, you hear what they're saying to your son. Please take care of this enemy, okay? Verse number 16, for I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me for I am ready to halt. And my sorrow is continually before me. So you see the great danger of being in sin. You know, when a pastor of a church commits a great sin, the enemies laugh, they rejoice, they lift themselves up. And, you know, I feel, well, you know, this justifies me and my sin because look at this pastor and you need to understand that as a child of God, you are representative of heaven. If you commit some great sin, you're disgracing your testimony and your enemies are going to laugh and rejoice over your fall. Verse number 18, for I will declare my iniquity. So I don't know if I read verse number 17, but anyway, for I am ready to halt and my sorrow is continually before me. And then it says in verse 18, for I will declare my iniquity I will be sorry for my sin. Is David proud? Well, he must've been proud to some extent to have committed the sin in the first place, but he gets to a point where he says, you know what? I'm just going to declare, God, I messed up. God, I sinned. I did wrong. And you go to the person you've wronged. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I was an idiot. I don't know why I did that. Please forgive me. I was wrong. I will be sorry for my sin. I will be sorry for my sin. This is why it's so important for you to chastise your children. They need to learn how to say sorry. They need to learn to say, hey, I did wrong. I messed up, mom and dad. I'm sorry. Okay, please forgive me. And you forgive that child. Okay, it's such an important part of life. They're going to grow up to be children. They're going to grow up to be adults that again, don't put their hand up. If you don't teach them, not just the discipline, not just the chastisement, but get them to say sorry after they've done wrong. And they mean it, they need to mean it. Not tears of anger, why did you correct me? Not tears of sadness that I've done wrong, that I acknowledge my sin. It's so important because we need to confess our sins to the Lord when we do wrong. We need to declare our iniquities. Some people take this passage and they really mess it up. They think that this is teaching that in order for you to be saved, you have to be sorry for your sins. Now, is it good to be sorry for your sins when you hear the gospel and you realize you're a sinner? It's good to be sorry for your sins, but you don't have to be sorry for your sins in order to be saved, right? The Bible says in John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever is sorry for his sins, no, but whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, okay? Speaking sorry for your sins is good, but it's just an emotion. It's an emotional response. You know, sometimes I've given the gospel to people and they have been sorry. Sometimes I've given the gospel to people and they've just been happy. Sometimes I've given the gospel to people and they've shown no emotion in their face, but they've bowed their head and called upon the name of the Lord to be saved because they've placed their faith. They've believed on Jesus Christ. They've accepted his sacrifice for salvation. This is not teaching that you have to be sorry for your sins to be saved. No, salvation is by believing on Jesus Christ. Again, is it okay to be sorry? Of course it's okay to be sorry, but to expect that, everybody has to be sorry and cry tears before you lead them to call upon the name of the Lord. That's the stupidity, okay? It's simple faith that saves the sinner. And again, it's the declaration of our sins. I'll quickly read to you another famous passage in 1 John 1.9, which says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. You see the one that never admits that he's done wrong. You make God a liar. You're a liar when you're not willing to confess your sins before the Lord, the almighty God. No, it's so great. It's such a blessing. It's such a relief when you're able to acknowledge your sin and know that God has forgiven you. Again, this part of the Christian life has nothing to do with salvation. This part has to do with keeping a close walk, close fellowship with the Lord God. Look at verse number 19. But mine enemies are lively and they are strong and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good is. Notice that the enemies render evil for good. So what's David doing to his enemies? David's doing good. But his enemies, they render evil. And we need to remember this. Even though we ask God, God, can you deal without my enemies? God, can you take down the wicked? God, can you destroy these wicked politicians? All right. At the same time, when we have an enemy, our commandment, what we have to do with individuals is to do good unto them and let God deal with it. All right. This is how we understand and we, what's the word I'm looking for? Anyway, this is how we sort of, you know, perform the duties of doing good to our enemies, such as Luke 6, 27, which says, But I say unto you, which hear, love your enemies, love your enemies. Commandment of Jesus Christ, very clear. It's not a gray area. Love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you and pray for them, which despitefully use you. Yeah, pray for them. Pray that God will sort them out. Leave it in God's hand. God, I'm gonna play dumb here. I'm gonna be deaf here. Lord, you hear what they're doing. You see what they're doing, Lord. I'm going to do good unto them. They're going to render me evil. You watch God and you please take vengeance upon these wicked people. Look at verse number 21. Forsake me not, O Lord, O my God. Be not far from me. So the fifth point that I have for you tonight is sin distances us from God. Sin distances us from God. What's the Psalmist saying? Forsake me not, O Lord. He feels like God's forsaken him. He feels like God is far away, okay? Be not far from me. The only time God seemingly comes close to the Psalmist is to give the chastisement and then God feels very far away. You know, when you have unconfessed sin, when you've committed grave sin and you don't go to God about it for a long time, it's gonna seem like God is far away. It's gonna seem like, you know, you may even start questioning the faith. You may even start, you know, questioning the Bible because it's a sin. God is so far away. I'm sure there are times in your life when God feels so close, okay? Where you can just know God's presence and God's guidance there is there in your life and other times when you've done wrong, he feels so far away. And that's how the Psalmist feels. You know, don't feel like you're an idiot. That's just part of sin. That's the consequences of sin. The Psalmist feels that way, okay? The reason these Psalms are here for us is so we know we're not unusual when we feel that way. So we know when God feels far away, we also desire to be drawn closer to him. Another passage I'll just read to you from 1 John 1.5, which says, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. You see, God is light and when we sin, we're in darkness. And God, if we say we have fellowship with God and we have unconfessed sin, we lie. You know, if you're in church right now and you feel like you're close to God because you've sung hymns, you feel like you're close to God because you're hearing the preaching of God's word, but you have unconfessed sin, well, God's light and you're in darkness and you've broken that fellowship. This is, you know, let me just repeat and I think it's so important. Please don't get sick and tired of this advice. But when you come to church, please remember to confess your sins before you come into the house of the Lord, okay? Please, even if the ones that you don't, we do sins that we don't even remember. The thought of foolishness is sin, okay? It's just God, yeah, name the sins off that you've done. Be willing to admit you've done wrong and then just be like, God, and I'm sure I've done some other stupid things. Please forgive me for them as well that I can't remember. And then you come into God's house and you're walking the light and God is light and you can have the close fellowship with God and get the most out of church. You make the effort already to be in church on a Wednesday night. You make the effort to online listeners to come in and listen to this preacher ramble on, okay? Well, make sure you're close to God. Make sure God's spirit can work in you. Make sure you have the presence of God close to you so you can maximize your learning, maximize, you know, the changes that God wants to make in your life. Verse number 22, make haste to help me, oh Lord, my salvation. So yeah, let's go to God. You know, God, you seem far from me, but make haste, Lord, come close to me. You know, help me in my difficulties. Help me to overcome the sin. Help me to overcome my enemies. Help me to deal with all these consequences of sin that I've brought upon myself, oh Lord, my salvation. So brethren, in conclusion, the five points that I had for you tonight, number one, sin brings God's chastening. Number two, sin is too heavy to bear. Number three, sin makes you depressed. Number four, sin destroys relationships. Number five, sin distances us from God. So because of my sin, that was the title for the sermon tonight, this is what sin does. You wanna overcome, you wanna try and work toward overcoming those sins in your life. And when you do sin, you need to remember to confess it before the Lord ASAP, before you face the full brunt of God's hand, of God's anger, God's wrath. And I'll just finish on one last passage and then we'll end. Hebrews 12, 11 says, Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them, which are exercised thereby. So if you're being chastised by God today, even right now, okay, if you know God's hand of chastisement upon you, you know, again, at the present, it seemeth not to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The reason God allows us to deal with these consequences and feel the pain and feel his hand of chastisement upon us is because he wants to develop fruit of righteousness in our life. He wants us to grow. He wants us to mature. God is not chastening you, okay? God is not allowing you to go for a trial because he hates you. He does it because he loves you, because his hand is upon you. He wants to see you mature and grow and be stronger and do greater works for him and have a greater faith upon him. Okay, brethren, let's pray.